The import market for bulk ferrous scrap in East Asia was quiet during the week, regional trading sources said Friday. Scrap prices remained under pressure due to weaker international scrap markets as well as continued availability of low-priced Chinese steel.
Platts assessed its weekly East Asian bulk HMS 80:20 price at $180-$185/mt CFR Friday, down from $185-190/mt CFR East Asia the week before.
The implied midpoint of $182.50/mt was $5 lower week on week.
Offers are still at $190/mt CFR and over for bulk 80:20, a Malaysian mill manager said. He said that regional mills were not interested in importing scrap at current prices because Chinese rebar and billet prices were more competitively priced.
"This market is so bad," an Australian trader said.
He expected scrap prices to soften further since Chinese billet prices have weakened. Bulk scrap prices are "probably" at $180-185/mt CFR, he said. But trading activity was thin because "sellers don't want to sell and buyers want to wait until prices go lower or see what happens," he said.
A Vietnamese trader said that he did not hear of bulk offers to Vietnam.
"Scrap is going to go lower," a Vietnamese trader said. While he did not hear of recent bulk scrap offers to Vietnam, he believed buyers there may possibly accept bulk 80:20 scrap at $180/mt CFR.
He said that offer prices for Japanese H2 grade scrap were "down again" to $165/mt CFR.
He said that a Japanese H2 scrap deal concluded at around $170-171/mt CFR Vietnam earlier this week. H2 scrap was transacted at $185-190/mt CFR Vietnam about a month ago.
A regional trader said that bulk scrap prices were "definitely lower" due to weaker Japanese scrap prices. He estimated nominal prices for US bulk scrap at below $175/mt CFR Korea HMS I based on prevailing Japanese scrap prices.
